Drone Pre Flight Checklist

A full list of my current drone missions as well as the pre-flight checklist to make sure all systems are a go.

This also includes a summary of what to do when you're confronted by the police while flying your drone.

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Current missions: 
* Easy upshot: 
    * 4k 30fps or 60fps and conform to 30fps
    * Shutter 1/60
    * ISO 100-200
    * White Balance 5600 (could go up to 6000)
    * ND filter 16
    * Turn on overexposure warning (this will show where image is pure white)
    * Turn on histogram. 
* Use HDR, 30fps. or 4K 30fps if can't control/fix the other params. 
* Experiment with shooting 4K 60fps (as long as image isn't too dark) and then conforming to 4K 30fps in iMovie. 
* Be sure to set the white balance to fixed. 
* Use manual mode with ISO all the way down. Adjust shutter speed as necessary, but should be 1/60 if 30fps. 
* Be close to the trees/ground. 
* The more movement, the better. Tilt the gimbal while moving in a curved path, or just move in a curved path. Straight paths are boring. 
* Play around with FPV mode.
* For tight shots, reasonable to do tri-pod and speed up the video in post.


Histogram: 
* Basically, just shows histogram for how many pixels are dark (left), mid-tone, and white (right). You want it to be evenly distributed for the most part, but you definitely don't want all the way to the right or all the way to the left. 

Drone Pre-flight check list: 
1. Remove gimbal protector (BEFORE powering on).
2. Unfold rear arms (pull down, swing back)
3. Unfold front arms (rotate forward)
4. Unfold landing gears (front only)
5. Check battery is firmly in place
6. Check propellers to make sure they are not broken and SECURE
7. Check each motor
8. Decide whether you want to put on the prop guards
9. Power on aircraft (click, then click and hold button on battery)
10. Check battery charge of the device, controller, and iPhone
11. Unfold controller, screw in 2 control knobs, insert iPhone into controller
12. Ensure the camera and VPS are clean. (What’s VPS?)
13. Check for any warnings in the app
14. Confirm Aircraft Status in app is "Ready to Go"
15. Make sure the GPS signal is 3 or greater. (Hard to get signal around our house.)
16. Make sure WiFi and Bluetooth are turned off on iPhone (helps with reception)
17. Check the battery temperature (tap the battery icon).
18. Check that the HD video feed is good (the bars should not be red). (Where is this?)
19. Calibrate the compass (optional). 
20. SET THE RETURN TO HOME ALTITUDE. Suggestion 100m (This was hard to find.)
21. Put phone in DO NOT DISTURB before flight, turn off display autolock.
22. Start the motors and wait for the app to say "the home point has been updated"
23. Probably a good idea to go up, hover for 30 seconds to make sure everything's good, then go back down. Then start flight after that.


Flight checklist: 
* Make sure wind is not too hard (branches shouldn't be swaying a lot). 
* It should not be raining, snow, or fog. 
* Not a lot of birds around or crowds or signal interference (like cell towers). 

Amazing camera settings guide for Mavic Air 2: 
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dAdJKe-nxY

Post-flight check list: 
1. Put the gimbal protector back on.
2. Fold down the landing gears. 
3. Fold the front arms. 
4. Fold the back arms. 



Emergency situations: 
* If you can't land safely on the ground (say you're over water, or it's about to go off a building) but the drone is at eye level. Take your hand and stick it under the drone, grab the battery area of the drone firmly and quickly (it'll try to avoid your hand since it'll sense something below it), and lift up and then turn the drone over so it's facing down. The motors will automatically turn off. 
* You can also grab the bottom and hold firmly while holding down on the altitude joystick.
* Only in an absolute emergency, you can turn off the motors while in mid-air (say you're about to run into a plane and can't descend fast enough), take the left stick and point it to the right, and hold the return to home button at the same time (jsyk, the turn off/on props by pointing both sticks in may work as well, unclear). Start the props again normally before you hit the ground by pushing them both in.

Hand takeoff: 
* Use the slide to take off, while holding the bottom middle of the drone.